The course intends to give a general overview of the historical development of european civil and criminal law. The course is divided into two parts.
Course Content - Last names E-N
This course will provide an introduction, firstly, to the history of European public law, from XVII century to 1945, and, secondly, to the history of U.S. constitutional law.
Course Content - Last names O-Z
The lessons investigate, with comparative-historical method, the foundation of Public Law from the medieval origins to the present.Special attention is dedicated to the relationships between power and law, to State formation and to the origins of legislative and administrative powers.
Regular students:
a) notes taken from the lessons
and
b) P. Cappellini, Storie di concetti giuridici, Torino, Giappichelli, 2010 pp. 1-48; 111- 161; 233-248;
and
1) S. Mannoni, Da Vienna a Monaco (1814-1938). Ordine europeo e diritto internazionale, Seconda edizione, Giappichelli, Torino, 2019;
2) S. Mannoni, La tradizione costituzionale in Europa. Tre itinerari nazionali tra diritto e storia. Inghilterra, Germania e Francia, GoWare, Firenze, c. 2016;
3) L. Stroppiana, Stati Uniti, Nuova edizione, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2021.
For the students attending the lessons:
P. Grossi, L'Europa del diritto, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2007, pp. 3-255, in addition to the lecture notes and the readings suggested by the teacher.
For non-attending students:
P. Grossi, L'Europa del diritto, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2007, pp. 3-255 e M. Fioravanti (a cura di), Lo Stato moderno in Europa: Istituzioni e diritto, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2002, pp. 3-229.
oppure in alternativa P. Grossi, L'Europa del diritto, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2007, pp. 3-255; Aa. Vv., Il pensiero giuridico italiano: dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea, Roma, Istituto Enciclopedia Italiana, 2015, p. 155-269.
Learning Objectives - Last names A-D
Contents
The course intends to give a general overview of the historical development of european civil and criminal law. The course is divided into two parts.
Objectives
The course intends to illustrate and describe the historical development of legal culture and of european legal systems from the Middle Age to the XX century, providing a deep analysis of the main institutions and concepts.
Skills
Students are supposed to:
A) Contextualize the relevant legislation in order to solve specific legal matters;
B) Understand the legal language in an historical perspective;
C) Develop a multidisciplinary approach.
Abilities
The course intends to provide the fundaments of legal culture, emphasizing the role played by history both in law genesis and in (an effectiveness-oriented) legal interpretation.
Students, thanks to an historical approach, will gradually discover the relativity of modern legal concepts, as well as the complexity and vitality of legal systems both in a time and space perspective, thus avoiding the risk of considering them only from a legislative point of view.
Learning Objectives - Last names E-N
See the "Course Content" section.
Learning Objectives - Last names O-Z
Knowledge
Historicity as a natural aspect of law.
Main elements of medieval and modern juridical issues
Capabilities
Historicizing normative data.
Pointing out historical origins of juridical language.
Dealing with interdisciplinary character of juridical issues
Skills
Sensibility to interpretative nature of jurist's activity. Relativity of juridical concepts and consciuosness of their historical roots.
Prerequisites - Last names A-D
Two different syllabus will be held in consideration of the frequency to the course: should the students decide to attend to the lessons, they would enroll in a separate list in view of the final test whose date will be communicated at the beginning of the course.
Prerequisites - Last names E-N
No prerequisite.
Prerequisites - Last names O-Z
Students who want to sit for the examination as 'regular students' must register in a list by a term that the teacher will indicate at the beginning of the course
Teaching Methods - Last names A-D
The course will take place in the form of lectures for a total of
96 hours, with a focus on the most relevant european historical sources. The related documents will be distributed during the lectures.
Teaching Methods - Last names E-N
Remote instruction. Class attendance is not mandatory.
Teaching Methods - Last names O-Z
The course will take place in the form of lectures for a total of 72 hours, with a focus on the most relevant european historical sources. The related documents will be distributed during the lectures.
Further information - Last names A-D
Final Test
Students, between the third and fourth year, will be required to draft a study plan including facultative subjects and other activities as well as the subject of the final test.
Further information - Last names E-N
Required books for students who only need 3 CFU: S. Mannoni, La tradizione costituzionale in Europa. Tre itinerari nazionali tra diritto e storia. Inghilterra, Germania e Francia, GoWare, Firenze, c. 2016.
Further information - Last names O-Z
For thesis and final exam you are invited to contact the teacher.
Type of Assessment - Last names A-D
Type of assessment: oral examination. The oral examination will aim to verify, through a number of questions from general topics to more specific points: a) the knowledge of the concepts and ideas discussed during the course; b) the ability to process these concepts in an autonomous way; c) an awareness of historicity as necessary aspect of law and the knowledge of the historical and conceptual roots of legal institutions.
Type of Assessment - Last names E-N
Erasmus and exchange students may chose to take a final remote oral exam or write a 20-25 pages thesis paper.
The choice of writing the paper, instead of taking the final exam, must be communicate in advance to professor Mannoni via e-mail (stefano.mannoni@unifi.it).
Type of Assessment - Last names O-Z
The examination will have place in oral form. A first question will be of general matter, regarding the medieval and modern legal experiences. The following questions will have a more specifical target, particularly about the works and historical sources and texts discussed during the lessons.
The evaluation will be measured on the student's ability to situate in a historical perspective the issue and his or her critical comprehension of the historical sources.
Course program - Last names A-D
Introductory part
History as fundamental dimension of legal experience; the legal order in the age of globalization: a new european ius commune?; a pluralistic experience: the medieval legal tradition; features and crisis of the ius commune system in modern Europe (XVI-XVIII century): law as synonime of justice and order; the notion of interpretatio; the Second scholasticism movement and legal humanism; the protestant reform: individualism and modern state; from the notion of status to the notion of contract; law as synonime of statute law and expression of sovereign power; codifications in the ancién regime throughout the French revolution; the Enlightenment and the modern criminal law genesis: Cesare Beccaria and the “Leopoldina”; the relationship between law and revolution according to Santi Romano’s thought; the revolutionary legislation and the emergence of a proprietary anthropology; two different models of codification from the modern age: the Napoleonic Code and the Austrian ABGB and their application in Italy; the Exégèse as dominant legal doctrine and compulsory interpretation method in a state-centric perspective; reactions against codification in Europe: legal romanticism and Savigny’s school; the Italian codification: the 1865 civil law code and the 1889 criminal law code; commercial law and its authonomy from civil law; the turning-point in the late XIX century italian legal doctrine: the influence of german Pandectist movement; an abandoned path: the legal socialism; towards the XX century: a new codification or a new law?; the German BGB (1900) and the Swiss Code (1907): from the legal formalism to the legal realism; the decline of the XIX century liberal model: the first world war as a no turning back point in the history of european law;
Special part
The current year investigation will focus on the anti-individualistic legal movements, on law in totalitarian systems, on the relationship between the italian legal doctrine, the fascism and 1942 Civil Code genesis.
Course program - Last names E-N
The course extended program corresponds to the content of the three required books (see the "Suggested readings" section).
Course program - Last names O-Z
Foundation of Public Law from the medieval origins to the present.
Special issues
The concept of the State
State formation in continental Europe and particularly in France.
The Enlightenment
State, Law and Constitution
The French Revolution
Rule of Law and Rechtsstaat
The Emergence of Administrative Law
The Welfare State
The challenge of the present: Nation State, Sovereignty, Global Law